Morpheme Tales in Oakland Tribune

An article on blogfirings came out today in the Oakland Tribune called “Bloggers may face management wrath.” The article quoted me extensively and mentioned Morpheme Tales. They managed to botch the URL of this blog, however, and despite asking them to fix it — a very easy thing to do especially online — they did not respond, nor make the fix. (This is the second time I’ve been involved in this particular kind of botch-all.)

The author, Francine Brevetti, writes:

Curt Hopkins, a blogger at Morphemetales.com, lists the employees who have been let go because of their blogging on his site.He reasoned that “whenever a new communication technology comes along, the first group to get really freaked out are employers.”

And:

Hopkins of Morphemetales.com, although unemployed, has had his own unpleasant experiences.

“I was a freelance journalist, and I was up for a position for Minnesota public radio,” he said.

“Then the interviewer came back to me and said that they couldn’t go any further with me as a candidate because of my blog. I was outraged and baffled because here was a news-gathering organization objecting to my having a blog.”

Hopkins uses his blog to publish a lot of material that he has researched but has not had published. “I’m thinking of getting rid of my blog. Maybe that’s the reason I can’t get a job,” Hopkins said.

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Well, as to that last bit, I have found work and it was a direct result of having a blog. So, be careful what you read in the papers. (Or are quoted as saying in them, I guess.)*